The most anticipated smartphone launch of the spring -- the Galaxy S IV -- was held yesterday in New York City. Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) largely delivered on the hype, with a smartphone packed with proprietary touchless control technologies, a 1080p screen, and a greatly improved camera. Critics pointed to the larger size as potentially being too much, and attacked the plastic case design, but that didn't stop Samsung from receiving a lot of positive press.

That good show appears to have Samsung's foes rattled. Following Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) pre-eventmedia blitz trashing on the GSIV, fellow Android phonemaker HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) has tagged in with some attacks of its own.

The company posted attack posts on Twitter during the launch event. One post parodied Samsung's tagline of "The Next Big Thing" with the hash-tag "#theNextBigFlop".

Outside the Samsung event, HTC team members demoed their rival HTC One device. The handed out cocoa and $100 coupons for the HTC One. Comments HTC President Jason Mackenzie to All Things D, "For us it’s a good opportunity to let people compare real-time. We have the best smartphone in the world right now, and we want to seize the opportunity to get it into as many hands as possible."

The HTC One

The Taiwanese company's CMO Ben Ho followed up with some more insults, commenting:

With a continuation of a plastic body, and a larger screen being the most obvious physical change, Samsung's new Galaxy pales in comparison to the all-aluminum unibody HTC One.

This is more of the same. HTC remains the best option for those people looking for the best technology wrapped in premium design. Our customers want something different from the mainstream, who appear to be the target for the Galaxy.

Our customers want original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel from their mobiles, which is why we created the HTC One.

He also toldEngadget, "Looking at the software features of the S4, we think Samsung spent more on marketing than innovation."

The noisy attacks seem a bit ironic coming from a company whose corporate motto is "quietly brilliant". But perhaps HTC is a little jealous of all the attention Samsung received; while the Samsung GSIV event was heavily covered, TV media largely ignored HTC's flagship launch of the 1080p One smartphone.

Publicly crapping on competing products doesn't make your products look any better. It makes you look worried about your competition. HTC and Apple clearly have a lot to lose, but the lame comments are pointless.

With that said, I understand HTC's frustration. At least for the past 2 years they have been putting out some really good phones. The One X and now this years One are really nice products. I don't get why they are being outsold so badly by Samsung but they are. It must be frustrating as hell to put all this effort into a kickass phone like the One, but knowing it will be totally outsold by the GS4.

Retro you tell me, am I being way too picky about HTC's idiotic decision to remove Android buttons on the One? It's like they made an almost perfect phone, but threw in a deal-breaker. I just cannot picture myself using an HTC One because they've taken one of the best things about Android, ease of use/navigation, and cocked it up!

Metal, plastic, meah in the end who cares? But I certainly care that tasks that are second nature and intuitive on my current phone, have been made clunky by HTC on the One.

But this is just my opinion, you know, Reclaimer the blind Android "fanboi" here...

Yep. And of all things they remove the capacitive buttons in the middle to put their giant logo. Great. Then again some people would still rather have something pretty but annoying to use than something truly functional.

Good it's not just me. And I know it's myopic and doesn't mean anything, but this decision has cost them at least 3 more sales, because two of my friends were this close to buying the HTC One until they heard about the button debacle.

It's just such an illogical design decision, I do NOT understand. The bezel is really small on the One, could it be having that (relatively) giant HTC logo where buttons should be was THAT important to them?

And I know the same functionality is there once you learn the new gestures, double taps, and hold-key...but it's the principle of it. And that's less intuitive and user-friendly.

Is HTC trying to be Apple or something? Will the next flagship phone have ONE button? Ugh!

I agree with the buttons. Have no idea why they removed it in favor of the logo, defeating at least some Android standardization. I was also really a fan of the four capacitive buttons, but I can see replacing the Search button with the Recent Apps button, but the menu button was nice to have. Why Google removed it in favor of the ... button I'll never know.

I'm also not a fan of the physical button on the GS3, Note 2 and GS4 either. Why add a physical button when capacitive buttons don't break

Having used the software buttons for a while now, I can say I like them better than the capacitive buttons since they're more flexible. They just need to be made to take up a little less screen and apps need to make them go away as-needed.

Probably because, I'm sure you've noticed, it's VERY easy to accidentally key a button with capacitive touch. With physical buttons you have to be deliberate.

quote: I agree with the buttons. Have no idea why they removed it in favor of the logo, defeating at least some Android standardization. I was also really a fan of the four capacitive buttons, but I can see replacing the Search button with the Recent Apps button, but the menu button was nice to have. Why Google removed it in favor of the ... button I'll never know.

I am split on it. I like the button, but if you are going to remove it, remove it to go edge to edge and lower the bexel size. HTC One is NOT a great edge to edge display phone. If it were, I could give the lack of button a pass.

"At least for the past 2 years they have been putting out some really good phones. The One X and now this years One are really nice products. I don't get why they are being outsold so badly by Samsung but they are.Well I'm a defector. I had the desire z and then a senstation and they were pretty good initially. The desire went to the wife when I got the sensation. But in less than 12 months the sensation was running like a dog and HTC decide to release a phone with no micro SD and no removable batteryMeanwhile the wife buys an S3 after toying with the idea of an iPhone and the speed and fluidity iwas amazing...so I bought the LTE version with spare battery and brought over the micro SD with my music etcThere's some pieces of HTC sense I miss but the damage is done. The sensation showes that a removable battery is a must simply for the ability to quickly power the thing off, though for me I carry a spare battery as well. I actually don't understand why the likes of the galaxy don't have the option of metal back coversRegardless...dissing a competitors product never makes you look good...it'd be much better to take the approach 'great product and if you'd like the same features in a metal body like iPhone, get our latest blah blah'